Politicians Can't Back Sell-The-Projects Idea
Unsurprisingly, a group of legislators has a serious bone to pick with HUD regional director Sean Moss over his recent comments that selling some public housing developments might help solve New York’s affordable housing crisis. A letter addressed to HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson that was signed by 14 assemblymembers (including Joan Millman and Hakeem Jeffries)…
Unsurprisingly, a group of legislators has a serious bone to pick with HUD regional director Sean Moss over his recent comments that selling some public housing developments might help solve New York’s affordable housing crisis. A letter addressed to HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson that was signed by 14 assemblymembers (including Joan Millman and Hakeem Jeffries) makes the case that selling public housing is in no way a long-term solution for the city’s housing crisis:
At issue is the assertion that mass displacement of residents in one neighborhood, would benefit residents of another. At the very least, this assertion is misguided. The existing NYCHA developments are of much more value, to both the number of individuals which they provide shelter to as well as the diverse communities they help foster, than a short term budget windfall. Likewise, any purchase and/or development of affordable housing, short of new construction of full scale NYCHA developments, would be comparatively wasteful of the suggested sales proceeds and could by no means accommodate the same numbers of residents currently served by existing developments. In short, a sale of NYCHA properties would be a ‘one-shot’ deal, and would offer very few benefits for those in need of public housing extending past the year of the sale.
Full text of the letter on the jump.
HUD Official Speaks the Unspeakable: Selling The Projects [Brownstoner]
Folks;
I’m signing off: the nuts have arrived. I can’t debte with people who reach into the gutter and call others they disagree with “Nazi’s”
Benson
that post was from Dem Lib and proud of it, not 3:21. Benson- you are clever- 3;21 is intelligent. I doubt you know the difference but if a few manipulated stats only expose the fact that your racial tunnel vision is showing. I’m tired of you so-called conservative types using “welfare” as the excuse for every ill this country has. If you want to live in a country that lacks compassion, morals and humanity sorry to tell you you missed Nazi Germany over 50 years.
Wow, it’s amazing how hysterical people get when someone dares to question the orthodoxy of the PBA! And I thought that the AY crowd was bad…
In 1:51, I clearly stated that I have a lot of respect for cops. If sinning means that believing that a $59,000 a year salary is considered a decent, then I am guilty. I never said that I hate cops or am ungrateful for what they do. That accusation was made by 2:18 and the ever-pontificating, long-winded Monstrose Morris.
Interesting facts, 2:18, but they still do not refute my original point: that the starting salary for cops is less than 30K, as stated by 10:56. That was where this all started, that was the extent of my point, and because I dared to raise it I have been equated with a cop-hater. I guess some things are taboo to discuss.
Also, 2:08, I agree that people who put their lives on the line deserve special consideration. That’s why, once again, I respect cops, as well as soldiers in Iraq, cab drivers, EMT workers, convenience store clerks, and bodega and deli owners.
To answer your question about volunteering, which was seemingly posed with the assumption that I do not do so, YES, I volunteer with the elderly twice a week. Does that change anything?
Lastly, I can never understand why people like our esteemed Monstrose Morris use the same stale line: “If you’re in trouble, who do you call?”. Who else am I supposed to call when I see a crime committed? The Department of Buildings?
So, to state this once again, loud and clear, so that all of you knee-jerk, hysterical types can understand me: I RESPECT POLICE OFFICERS AND AM GRATEFUL FOR ALL THAT THEY DO. I never stated otherwise. I only noted that their starting salaries are not less than 30K. (Please read this final paragraph a minimum of five times and do deep breathing exercise for 90 seconds before responding)
Wow! Guiliani is a superhero! All by himself, he changed the face of New York. He should run for president!
Gosh, golly – Rudy!
Thank you, 3:53! Well said.
“Back in the days when liberalism was running amuck in NYC, there were dead bodies everywhere, and the city was broke.
”
As opposed to today when the neocons and conservatives have the upper hand and the dead bodies are in Iraq, the country is being bled dry by the war, our constitutional rights have been so degraded we are verging on a police state, millions of working people can’t afford health insurance, Giuliani can show his family values by telling his wife he is divorcing her in a press conference, push Bernard Kerik as Homeland Security honcho, the vice president shoots his friend in the face and no one blinks, and the President of the United States can steal an election, lie and send us off to war in in a country that had nothing to do with 9-11, no WMD’s and no Osama Bin Laden. Oh yes- let’s look at the Liberals and how THEY have destroyed the country with welfare.
3.21;
Oh come on. Your latest post reads like one of the NYT editorials from that time trying to convince everyone that the City was not really that profligate.
You cleverly talk about the growth of the welfare rolls post-1970, knowing full well that the growth of the dole (to 1 million people) occured in the 1960’s. In the late 1960’s, the city’s welfare expense almost DOUBLED every year. Why don’t you cite the statistics from the 1960’s???? It then remained more or less at 1 Million until Giuliani came along. Do you really think that you are going to win a debate by being too clever? Come on – let’s be adults here.
As for the growth of labor cost – am I supposed to be relieved that labor costs weren’t the very top driver? Gee, the labor costs grew only 313% in 15 years!!! What a relief to the taxpayer!! This is a record that any CEO would be proud of!!! Once again – come on – let’s be adults.
You are obviously trying to put a spin as to what happened to the city back then. Let me provide you with a reality check: when Giuliani came along, he reformed welfare, he reformed the labor contracts, he cut down on crime, and the city started to recover, both fiscally and in terms of violence.
Funny thing about dollars and dead bodies: there is no hiding them. Back in the days when liberalism was running amuck in NYC, there were dead bodies everywhere, and the city was broke.
Benson
Benson,
Whatever holes your dad and friends may have punched in the city budget, far more damage was done by others.
To get wonky, 61-75 the city’s total costs from labor went up 313.6% but since the total growth of all city costs went up 393%, it couldn’t have been the driving force behind budget shortfalls.
As for welfare, after 1970 the city’s growth rate was slower than the national average.
Far more of your tax dollars went out the door to politically connected supply and equipment contracts that rose at twice the pace of the rest of the budget in those years. Yes, welfare killed the city in the 1970s, but it was white-collar welfare.
2.21;
In answer to your question: yes, I am against hand-outs for developers.
I suppose you can say that Title 1 and ML were an attempt to keep the middle class in NY. However, I still maintain that the leaders were operating in a vacuum, and these programs are proof of it. What kind of a choice did it really present? On one hand you could have your own house to do as you please, in a pleasant environment, with a nice tax deduction and government-sponsore mortgage. On the other hand you were put up in a tower isolated in the neighborhood, with all sort of restrictions about your upside and how much you could earn. Most people voted with their feet.
Finally, to say that welfare and the union contracts were not significant contributors to the City’s fiscal condition is just not based in reality. My father was a civil servant, and I grew up in a an area and environment that was dominated by civil servants. HOURS of conversation back then were dominated on how to bilk the city, how to get off with a 3/4 pay diability pension, how to charge double overtime. At the peak, 1,000,000 people in NYC were on welfare. To state that 1 in 8 residents being on welfare is not a significant financial strain is just not reality.
Benson
2:28
Charles Morris, who served as assistant NYC budget director at the time and later worked as a vice president at chase, crunched NYC deficit numbers carefully in _The Cost of Good Intentions: NYC and the Liberal Experiment_, and concluded CUNY’s move to open enrollment had a significant effect on the budget crisis.
He demonstrates that social programs had a negligible impact.
Kim Moody, from a more left perspective, adds to Morris’s argument by addressing the role of the city’s “contract, supplies, and equipment budget” as the culprit.
Neither blames the usual suspects, welfare, union contracts etc..